At standard rates of play there is a tiny minority of players who, when the clock counts down to the last few minutes, turn into cold, calculating killers where the rest of us enter a state somewhere between mild panic and that of headless chickens running round in circles.

In an attempt to move myself from the headless chicken end of the scale towards mild panic I often try, when the rapid time control is friendly (e.g. 20+5), to write the moves down at least until I have less than 1 minute left and ideally to try and go under the 30 second mark. The idea is to increase (perhaps "develop" would be more accurate) composure under pressure. I think it works and it has the added benefit of having a record of all or most of the game even if it is only my opponent's side of it which is worth recording.

As far as the rules go the only point to be aware of is that you are not allowed to write moves in advance, although you are unlikely to want to try and do that in any case. You are free to stop and restart recording whenever you want, to catch up while your opponent is having a think.

In my experience recording moves in 20+5 events is fairly common although usually it's more the younger players doing this. At the extreme end I recently played somebody called Malola Prasath in a 10+5 event who recorded the moves! When my flag fell I had a winning position which was far too complicated for a 5 second increment while he had more than 2 minutes left on the clock, the full point, obviously, and a complete record of the game. Chapeau! He must be one of the tiny minority whose minds become clearer as the flag starts to rise. Talking to one of the strongest players in the event, Malola did the same against him, so for him it wasn't just an exercise against the minnows. He was doing it against the big boys as well.